Swim time trial and run in Madison

I drove up to Madison after work on Friday to be there for Saturday's course ride.  My coach wanted me to swim a time trial...

I explained to her that swimming has basically just one speed for me:  go speed.  I swim hard-ish when I have bursts of energy, but otherwise, I just try to swim steady.  I find time trials incredibly stressful in the pool and I'm not sure I can mentally push myself to go "faster" since I'm still figuring out how I'll feel swimming that long.

In any case, I bought a day pass for $20 to the Princeton Club on the East side to swim and run.  When I got there the lanes were full since a class just ended, but it eventually thinned out.  I was to swim two 2,000 with :30 second rest in between.  I started right off the bat, no warm up or anything and just swam laps until I hit the first 2,000.  Around the half way point, I looked at the lane next to me and thought I saw someone with shoes.  After a few more laps, I was right... an older lady was dancing her way up and down the lane with shoes on.  I'm not sure the point of that, but I found it amusing and annoying in varying moments of my swim.  

After the first 2,000 and first 50 minutes, I took my quick break and started again.  The second 2,000 only took me about 30 minutes and I felt like I could have kept swimming.  I had to do some google adjustments (I think I really need a better fit since I ALWAYS have to adjust them and it's going to be virtually impossible during the race.) so I paused for a couple seconds here and there.  During the second 2,000 fast swimmers (2 dudes) took up the lanes next to me.  They were some great motivators at moments.  I thought a lot of life during that 1:30 in the pool and also stressed out that someone was going to ask me to share the lane (they were VERY narrow and NO ONE was sharing) since I picked the lane that was smack in front of the sign saying you should keep your swims to 30 minutes if people are waiting.  There were also a high number of people in the nearby hottub.

After the swim, I was pleased and did a quick change to get on the treadmill.  For the first 15 minutes on the treadmill, I thought I was going to throw up or something.  I had a lot of reflux and I've been having some issues with that. I couldn't recall the run for today, so I just repeated Thursday's run and went about 45 minutes.  I had to jump off the treadmill to get in the shower and get ready for dinner with Madison friends and those 15 minutes definitely took precedence over a few more on the treadmill!!!

Hour run before work + coaching meeting 5/9

I had a simple run before work on Thursday and it was a run that was easy for me to remember and relatively easy.

It was 60 minutes of the following:

5 minutes walk

5 minutes easy jog

5x:

2 minutes z2

6 minutes z3

1 minute walk

and any left over time, walk to finish.

After work, I stopped by an open house and had a glass of wine before meeting my coach to discuss the last month of training.  We talked about a lot of things but one of the main things I wanted to discuss heart rate zone running.  I have had a lot of issues with heart rate monitoring while running.  I don't think it works with my regular and favorite jog bra since there is a zipper in the front against the transmitter.  I pretty much refuse to sacrifice my chest for this race too, so I'm not changing it!  I have pleaded with my coach to provide me with pace zones to train with rather than HR data.  I basically told her leading into this meeting, if she couldn't get on board with paces for running, then we'd need to re-evaluate our relationship.  She said that she was okay with paces and provided me them.  I told her they were too slow, but again she refused to listen to me.  This is really a sore point of contention for me with my coach.  I wore a different jog bra on Friday and the HR zones came through okay- so I'm happy to say that I was right about the bra AND about the zones being to low.  

I know that a teacher or a coach does know a lot about the sport, etc, but no one knows me better than me.  Period.

5/8 Make up balance of Tuesday's bike ride and personal training session

I got a free personal training session by joining my gym so I decided to use it one morning when I had a strength workout in my plan.

I got to the gym pretty early and jumped on a stationary bike for as long as I could before our appointment rather than a brief 15 minute run to warm up.  I think I rode about 35 minutes before Kendra got to the gym for our appointment.

Kendra was also a triathlete and really understood what muscles I need to strengthen to be more successful in multisport.  In between each exercise, she had me doing plyometrics to increase my heart rate for a few minutes and then back to lifting.  She said this simulated transitions and hard pushes in the race.  It was really useful for me to have a trainer show me what to do and how to properly use the machines.  I never use any of the weight machines and now I know exactly what I can use to get strength in for lats, tris, bis, quads, and hamstrings.  Everything was pretty simple and I feel confident with the settings and such.  I think I may go back to her at some point, but for now, I want to see what I can remember for my next strength workout.  I can do a bunch of arm things with the TRX machines now at least.

The following day, I could really, really feel my lats all day so I think she got the job done!  I also worked my core pretty hard with sit-ups from the hanging bar and crunches on this thing where you rest your arms/elbows.  If I can find a photo online of a few of the machines I will add to this post!  I don't know any of their names!

Here's also something I will be referencing on Saturday!!

Tuesday 5/7 1:15 bike ride in morning. Massage after work!

I was supposed to ride for 2 hours before work, but since I got up and on the bike at 5:30am, the full two hours was not possible.  I rode for 1 hour and 15 minutes and then thought I'd finish up after our management meeting on Tuesday night but before my massage!

I got a $25 gift card for my birthday from the gym and decided to use it!  :)  The massage was the highlight of my week despite the fact that it was incredibly painful.  Holy cow, she found knots that I didn't even know existed.  She started to work on my back, but pointed out that my hamstrings and butt were so tight that she would have to start there to release the tightness in my back to even have any benefits there.  Needless to say, after that this week, I felt like a million bucks.

Well worth it!!

5/6 strength and run + a quote

"You have exactly one life in which to do everything you'll ever do. Act accordingly."

Colin Wright  - http://exilelifestyle.com/about/

I decided to try a class at the gym tonight for my strength workout called "Chisel".  It seemed to be very little aerobic workout and mostly lifting per the description.  Since I seem to either cheat or skip strength, I thought this might be a good option for me.

The class started with some jumping jacks and running in place and then went into the lifting.  Thankfully, I spoke with someone helpful before the class who told me to grab a few different weights and a pole too. I used the lightest weights most of the time, but when the instructor said "grab your heavy weights", I did!  MY heavy weights were only 5lbs each.  My bar was 9lbs.  There were some interesting moves with the bar and my hamstrings definitely felt it!

Afterwards, I ran for an hour on the treadmill.  That was a poor decision because I was already really tired!  I should have run first and then lifted, but the timing of the class aligned well with the end of the workday and the commute to get there.

Sunday, 5/5 Private Pilates

Too bad I seem to wake up earlier on the weekends these days than to get into work...

I had my last free private Pilates lesson with Joy at East Lakeview FFC on Sunday morning at 7:15am.  I wanted to try and get my workouts out of the way so I could enjoy the day with Michael.  For his birthday, I surprised him with tickets to "Big Fish" from the Broadway in Chicago series.

Joy is a coach and triathlete herself and she really knows how to help me strengthen and stretch out.  She is signed up for Ironman Arizona for her second attempt this year.

Pilates is amazingly simple and deceptively difficult.  I am always surprised what looks simple and easy and is incredibly challenging.  She uses the reformer, Cadillac, and a variety of other primitive devices to help me strengthen and lengthen my muscles.   Of course, after my ride yesterday, I was super tight in the hips, legs and hamstrings.

The exercise below was super hard due to my fatigued muscles!

Afterwards, I was supposed to swim for an hour- which actually probably would have felt good- however, I didn't want to have to wash my hair again for the show, so I thought I could bring myself to do it afterwards. No dice.  We went to birthday brunch and then to the show and afterwards, I couldn't stay awake until 8:30pm!  I was beat!!

Saturday, 5/4 Indoor ride

My scheduled workout for Saturday was flipped with Sunday since Sunday was Michael's birthday.  Due to the weather reports, I was concerned about getting in a full FOUR HOUR bike ride (eik!) so I scheduled a double at Train Chicago Studios.

My ride started at 7:30am (early!) and I asked them to upload the Ironman Wisconsin course so I could experience it a bit.  They set me up with this super cool program called Racer Mate where the video corresponds with the terrain.  So basically, you are watching a screen at the pace you are riding.  The technology they have is truly amazing!!

For those that don't know the difference between an indoor vs outdoor ride, I would say indoor is much more painful from a seat perspective.  Outside, you are getting up and off your saddle for bumps and wind while indoors your lady bits are subjected to the saddle for the FULL FOUR HOURS.  Numbness and pain do occur, yes.  It can be brutal.

For the first two hours of the ride, I sat next to a guy named Michael W who was a great cyclist.  We chatted about our lives and family and interest in cycling and he carried me through the first two hours.  The program is also interesting in so far as the fastest rider "controls" how long you're in the hills... meaning, I'd experience the hills when he'd hit them (he was a faster rider than me).  So the good thing was that I still hit the hills, but perhaps wasn't in them as long since he could summit faster than me.  The other fun part of the video is actually "rode" through areas I recognized   my friends Don and Jenny live along the route, so I waved when I passed them.  :)

I'm not sure how I describe this makes a lot of sense if you haven't used this technology, but in the end, he only rode for 2 hours.  After that, the video holds frozen until I caught up to where he stopped (I think he was at mile 28 and I was at 24).

Around that time, Carrie showed up to ride about 45 minutes with me.  Again, it was nice to catch up and have someone to share the pain with...although it was unfortunate for her that she arrived right when we were heading up a pretty substantial hill (about 17% grade).  She unplugged until we got to the top and then continued to ride.  This time, I was in pole position, so she experienced the hills how I climbed them.  After her time was up, I basically had another 1 hour and 15-25 minutes or so to finish.  When I came up to 4 hours, I decided I would ride to hit 50 miles.  I think I was about 2.5 miles short and of course, those last 2.5 miles were a mental challenge.  I was fighting the "you only have to ride 4 hours" mentality with trying to work on my mental toughness and go to a number beyond what was required.  I'm glad I did it and I was only on the bike for another few minutes.  It was worth it.

After my bike, I had to run for 30 minutes.  I haven't done a brick that intense for some time and the reminder of the lactic acid in my legs was a good one!  The long video ride of Madison was good mental preparation for my ride on the course next Saturday.  I am going to do just 40 miles and see how it compares in real life.

Also, Carrie said she has some additional rides that she isn't going to use that I could have so I may take her up on that and ride the course a few more times indoors in the next month or so.